I see that Sparkfun and Robotshop are both backordered for Ardupilot Mega boards.
Couple of dumb questions about that:
a) is there another supplier anyone is aware of that has them in stock?
b) what is the hardware roadmap for ardupilot? Will there be significant changes in the future? For instance, now that the Arduino Uno is out, will there be any impact on the ArduPilot project, or is the hardware so custom that it has no impact?
Replies
The DIY Drones store will be the main supplier of them going forward. We put a batch of the new v1.4 boards into production last week and they sold out in hours, but we'll be going to full-time production starting on Monday and should have them back in stock by mid-week.
The roadmap is that we update the hardware when new technology allows--we have at least a dozen new products coming out in the next six months. That's why it's modular, so you can upgrade your APM board without losing your IMU shield, or vice versa. Expect both them of them to rev at least twice a year. We maintain backwards compatibility, however, so there's no need to upgrade your hardware if you don't want to.
In other words, in a very fast-moving technology space, we've designed ArduPilot Mega to remain as future-proof as possible, at least within the UAV definition of "future".